CATEGOY: PORT TOWNSEND

I found a book of William Carlos Williams poetry.  And before I even say one small thing about it, let me diverge momentarily.

Remember Catch 22?  Remember Major Major Major Major?  Well, in case you need reminding, his father, who’s last name was Major, gave his infant son the first and middle name of Major also.  He did it in a moment of gleeful, malicious revenge against his wife (I can’t remember why but probably because she was a woman) who was in the hospital at the time and could do nothing about it.  Then later Major Major Major became a Major in the army, which fact is immaterial to this story but smacks vaguely of that great scientific extravaganza about the whole being more than the sum of the parts.

And to diverge even further, there is something vaguer than that tickling my brain.  It has to do with FACTORIALS which I remember from my school days.  A factorial is the number of different combinations possible with any given group of things.  Example:  How many different ways can you combine the words YOU  ARE  A  FOOLISH  YOUNG  GIRL?  There are six words and the answer is 6x5x4x3x2x1=720 different ways to be foolish. Now take Major Major Major Major–four words.  How many ways can you combine these words?  4x3x2x1=24.  Imagine that !  Twenty four different combinations and they all read the same.

Well, anyhow, getting back to William Carlos Williams: he only missed on the middle name.  Can you imagine anyone really naming their child William Williams?  He has a way to go before he can equal Major Major Major Major, but maybe we can help him out by asking questions such as, “Will Will Will will wampum or a willow switch to Will Will Junior”?  (There are 24 different ways of putting the emphasis on the first four words.)

Now, getting back (?) to poetry: as is probably understandable with a name like that, Will Will is a materialist, albeit a great one.  He is also a great color artist.  I think I will paint him red, hose him down and set him beside some white chickens so that everything can depend on him, and he can be very important to all of us forever and ever.